E-COMMERCE/INTERNET RETAILING Q3 2017 CONTACTS MERGER & ACQUISITION OVERVIEW Lisa Tolliver Due to the advantages e-commerce platforms are able to offer over traditional brick-and- Director mortar stores on price, convenience and product availability, websites are rapidly stealing (312) 674-4532 consumers from traditional retailers and leaving big box stores scrambling to keep up.
[email protected] While some stores have had success building out their own e-commerce platform, many others are turning to acquisitions as a way to drive growth and compete with online Ted Polk behemoths like Amazon. Managing Director (312) 674-4531 Walmart, for example, spent $3.3 billion in August to acquire Jet.com, an online retailer
[email protected] founded by former Amazon employees. Since then, the company has made at least four e-commerce acquisitions, including its June purchase of internet clothing brand Bonobos Parker Dwyer for $310 million. However, major superstores are not the only companies purchasing Associate online sellers in order to boost sales; M&A has been pervasive across the entire retail (312) 674-4533 industry. One notable example, PetSmart’s April acquisition of Chewy.com, a fast-growing
[email protected] pet food and product site, represents the largest e-commerce acquisition to date at $3.35 billion. While many brick-and-mortar stores are expanding into e-commerce to complement their physical locations, some e-commerce sites are making moves to acquire physical stores in an effort to achieve the same sort of hybrid business model. In an attempt to reap some of the unique benefits of physical stores, Amazon recently spent $13.7 billion to acquire Whole Foods, representing its largest acquisition by a factor of more than ten.